Perth youngsters compete in national table tennis championship

Jul 4 2008 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH schools did well in the first national primary schools’ team championships held at Drumchapel High School.

In the girls’ event, seven teams entered and the Perth Select team of Fiona Scott (Viewlands), Bethany Payne (Moncreiffe), and Caitlin Rice (St John’s), quickly won their way through to the final top group of three without dropping a game.

First the girls had to face a strong Dumfries Select, but Fiona recorded her best result with a win over the Scottish U13 player Alice Williams.

The next match against Bankhead School, Drumchapel, looked just as tough and the Drum girls took an early 2–0 lead. But all credit to the Perth side who came back to level at 2–2 via fine wins by Fiona over Scottish No 9 Lucy Elliott and a fantastic victory by Caitlin. Bethany just lost out to Scottish U13 No 12 ranked player Donna Gillon in the final game. Dumfries won the final match 3–2 against Bankhead to become Scottish Champions.

The boys’ event attracted 22 teams and the standard of play was top quality.

The Perth Select team of Alastair Scott (Morrisons), Greg Meiklem (Strathallan) and Jason Fleming (Moncreiffe), reached the semi final via wins over Cardonald, Bankhead and Baljaffrey A.

Their semi final against an Edinburgh Select was the tournament’s most exciting match. Alastair won the opening game. Then came what must be the game of the tournament.

Jason Fleming, playing in his first major competition, held his nerve to record a remarkable win to give Perth a 2–1 advantage. The match then went to the final set of the final game but Alastair couldn’t put enough pressure on his opponent and Edinburgh just sneaked it 3–2.

In the final Stirlingshire looked too strong and proved as they took the title 3–1 over Edinburgh.

Strathallan boys reached the last eight and their team captain Joss Henderson looks a bright prospect.